ATTCK VCTRS

Reasons people stop creating

  1. someone scoffed at their ideas
  2. they carry a torch for a failed idea
  3. they fell in love with an idea that they never saw through to fruition
  4. they think ideas are a nonrenewable resource, like there's a finite number of good ones
  5. nobody told them they're creative
  6. someone told them they're not creative
  7. they haven't had the experience of failing and continuing to try other ideas until they succeeded
  8. they haven't discovered the joys of coming up with crazy ideas just for fun
  9. ideas are not rare opportunities; they are more like the city bus; if you miss one, there's always another one right behind it
  10. they think their idea isn't unique; many ideas aren't; we share an existence with others who are influenced by much of the same stimuli that give birth to ideas, so don't be surprised if someone else thought of it; it's even more rare for people to do the hard, thankless work of carrying the idea as far as they could take it
  11. the most satisfying an idea gets is when you first have it, and when you first profit from it; the messy middle is where people usually give up; effort is hard and thankless
  12. it's easy to believe that the messier and lonelier the work, the greater the reward; however, people get discouraged when the outcome doesn’t compensate for the striving
  13. it's universal to want praise and respect for your efforts; it's more evolved to strive for striving’s sake or to accept delayed gratification as compensation; sometimes paid work is as far as one’s tolerance for that will stretch (paid work is necessary to fuel one’s imagination until it can fly on its own); people choose to believe that executing other people's ideas is enough
  14. life got too comfortable; spite is a necessary ingredient for change, and what is creativity but a desire for things to be different?

not on this list:

  1. you didn't have the right crayons
  2. you didn't have the right parents
  3. you didn't have enough money
  4. you didn't have the connections
  5. you didn't have the beauty
  6. you didn't have the talent
  7. you didn't have the energy

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." —Maya Angelou

Edit

After I wrote this post, I had the distinct feeling that something was missing. Nick Cave writes beautifully about life and the creative process, and he kind of nailed it on this newsletter. So I added #14, above.

Happy creating.